Electromechanical Simulation of Actively Controlled Rotordynamic Systems with Piezoelectric Actuators

Theories and tests for incorporating piezoelectric pushers as actuator devices for active vibration control are discussed. It started from a simple model with the assumption of ideal pusher characteristics and progressed to electromechanical models with nonideal pushers. Effects on system stability due to the nonideal characteristics of piezoelectric pushers and other elements in the control loop were investigated

HB 282 - Preservation of Sexual Assault Evidence

This Act extends the time that law enforcement agencies are required to preserve certain evidence of sexual assault. Physical evidence of a reported sexual assault will be preserved for fifty years, and if there is an arrest, for thirty years from the date of arrest or seven years from the sentence’s completion

Analysis of geochemical tracers in different systems soil-Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck

Today is increasing the attention of consumers for the origin of food and high reputation of products with a distinct geographical identity. Food traceability is an important issue in food safety and quality control, with impacts on food security, its quantity and overall availability. The knowledge of a chemistry relationship between the soil and the agricultural products is an important tool for the quality assessment of food. Citrus Limon is the most important fruit tree crop in the world and the detection of potential fraud could improve by using tools linking the chemistry composition of this production to its typical growing area. This study use rare earth elements (REEs) as geochemical tracers. The REEs are a set of 14 elements, from lanthanum to lutetium that can be divided in light rare earth elements (LREEs), from La to Gd and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), from Tb to Lu. The REEs have recognized as very useful tracers due to their generally coherent and predictable behavior. The aim of the research is to observe whether the fruits of various cultivars of citrus cultivated on the same soil and their products (fruit and juice) reproduce the same distribution of REEs. Taking into account of our previous works carried out on grapevine – soil system [1, 2], we applied the same technique to evaluate and trace the REEs distribution in soil– Citrus Limon fruits system. Ten different varieties of Lemon fruits (Citrus limon Osbeck (L.)) were sampled. Lemon plant were grafted onto an unique rootstock (Citrus × aurantium L.), grown on volcanic soil in two experimental farms, located at the "Acireale" region (latitude 37 ° 37'23 N, longitude 15° 09'51.00 E and 205 m a.s.l., in Sicily, Italy) and “Portici” region (latitude 40 ° 81' 55 N, longitude 14° 34'75.00 E and 75 m a.s.l., in Campania, Italy). The varieties selected were: Akragas, Erice, Selinunte, Segesta, Continella, Femminello Siracusano, Femminello Dosaco, Kamarina, Sfusato, Ovale di Sorrento, Interdonato. A sample of 2 kg of fruit was collected at technological ripeness from each plant of three for every cultivar. As well as, three soil samples (about 2 kg) in the field corresponding to lemon sampling were collected and to reduce any surface contamination from a depth of 10–30 cm. The REEs amount, the HREEs/LREEs relations and their distribution in the fruit and citrus juice with respect to the own soil were determined and calculated. Results obtained were treated with statistical methods. The intriguing results obtained with a geochemical approach are the first on the soil–Citrus Limon fruits system

Effetti degli oli essenziali di agrumi applicati in post-emergenza sul controllo delle infestanti e sulla comunit\ue0 microbica del suolo

Sebbene gli erbicidi sintetici ad oggi siano il mezzo pi\uf9 utilizzato per il controllo delle erbe infestanti, \ue8 ampiamente dimostrato che essi hanno un impatto negativo sul suolo, sull'ambiente e, inoltre, iniziano a manifestarsi fenomeni di resistenza. Pertanto, \ue8 importante sviluppare mezzi alternativi che siano al contempo efficaci e rispettosi dell\u2019ambiente. Gli olii essenziali estratti dalle piante sono stati da sempre utilizzati per molteplici usi come agenti battericidi, virucidi, fungicidi, insetticidi, medicinali e cosmetici. Diversi studi hanno dimostrato tali attivit\ue0 degli oli essenziali estratti dagli agrumi, ma scarsi sono gli studi che hanno investigato il loro potenziale uso come erbicidi. Inoltre, anche se diversi studi hanno dimostrato un effetto antimicrobico, tali studi sono stati condotti prevalentemente in vitro e non in vivo. Obiettivo del presente lavoro \ue8 stato quello di valutare la potenzialit\ue0 degli oli essenziali estratti dalle bucce di limone e arancia i) per limitare lo sviluppo delle erbe infestanti e ii) il loro effetto sulla comunit\ue0 microbica del suolo. Gli oli essenziali testati sono stati estratti per idrodistillazione e con pressa a freddo: LI e AI, olio essenziale di limone e arancio, rispettivamente, estratti con pressa a freddo; LU e AU, olio essenziale di limone e arancio, rispettivamente, estratti tramite idrodistillazione. Ai fini del presente lavoro, il suolo utilizzato \ue8 stato prelevato presso un campo sperimentale dell'Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Palermo. Dopo il prelievo, il suolo \ue8 stato essiccato all'aria e setacciato con setaccio con fori del diametro di un centimetro. Successivamente, 500 grammi di suolo sono stati posti in 20 vaschette di alluminio (10 7 20 cm) ed incubati in condizioni naturali. Durante l\u2019incubazione il suolo \ue8 stato mantenuto al 50% della sua capacit\ue0 idrica di campo (WHC). Dopo l\u2019emergenza delle piantine, ovvero alla comparsa della terza foglia (ventesimo giorno dall\u2019inizio dell\u2019incubazione), ciascun olio essenziale \ue8 stato applicato nebulizzandolo sulle piantine, a giorni alterni per una settimana (tre applicazioni in totale). Per ogni vaso e per ogni trattamento, sono stati applicati 5 mL di una soluzione contenente 1 L di acqua, 10 mL di olio essenziale e 1 mL di emulsionante. Nel suolo di controllo la soluzione applicata alle piantine non conteneva olio essenziale. Dopo 15 giorni dall\u2019ultima applicazione dei trattamenti, i suoli sono stati campionati in modo totale, setacciati ed analizzati per la determinazione del carbonio della biomassa microbica (metodo fumigazione-estrazione), respirazione basale (emissione di CO2) e struttura della comunit\ue0 microbica (analisi degli acidi grassi dei fosfolipidi). Inoltre, per ogni trattamento sono stati determinati alcuni parametri delle piante come peso secco e fresco totale, numero di specie e numero di piante per specie. In questo lavoro vengono riportati e discussi i principali risultati

Preliminary studies of geochemical tools to traceability of Sicilian honey

Today is increasing the attention of consumers for the origin of food and high reputation of products with a distinct geographical identity. Food traceability is an important issue in food safety and quality control, with impacts on food security, its quantity and overall availability. Furthermore, the possibility of tracing the origin of foodstuff is assuming an increasingly important role at the legislative level, as a tool that may allow to prove on product authenticity and to control adulteration So, establish systems to trace food or feed products through specified stages of production, processing and distribution play a key role also to ensure food safety. For these reason, in the last years, a various of analytical techniques have been tested to found ways to establish the geographical origin of different kinds of food and many works reported that the combination of different analytical methods associated a multifactorial analysis of the data seems to be the most promising system to establish univocal traceability systems. Despite, the honey is a well appreciated natural product in the world and the detection of potential fraud could be favored through tools linking the chemistry composition of this production to producing area. A relatively small number of investigations regarding traceability of honey can be found in the scientific literature. Therefore, in these contest the development of fingerprinting techniques based on the determination of the specific markers of provenance analyzed whit chemometric approach represents an interesting area of research. Recent works have been demonstrated the potentiality of the study of the distribution patterns of rare earth as a promising analytical method for traceability of food products due coherent and predictable chemical behaviour of these compounds. Also, have been demonstrated that their distribution in soil keeps unaltered in plants growing on that soil and eventually in agricultural products obtained from those plants and through the normalization of the REEs distribution, it is possible to appreciate their relative enrichments in soil-plant- agro food products The aim of the research is to observe if the REEs normalizated pattern of honey is kept unaltered respect the soils of production to establish a correlation between geographic area and honey product. In this first study the REE approach, give very intriguing results in the geographical traceability of honey samples. The results have been supported by statistical treatment. A larger study is in progress to optimize the analytical methodology and to extend the research to a major number of sample for a better geographical characterization

Effects of Citrus essential oils on weed emergence and on soil microorganisms

Weed invasion is a major problem for agricultural productivity since causes economic and environmental damages. Weed control can be achieved through chemical, mechanical, biological and cultural means. Although synthetic herbicides are effective for weed control, they have a negative impact on soil and the environment. Therefore, it is important to develop alternative means that are in the meanwhile effective and ecofriendly. EOs are commonly used for bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal, antiparasitical, insecticidal, medicinal and cosmetic applications. Citrus EOs are the most widely used in the world for many purposes. Moreover, some studies have recently investigated their potential as herbicides. EOs can be extracted in different ways among which hydro distillation and cold pressing are commonly used. The two methods are based on different procedures. Hydro distillation is carried out with a Clevenger-apparatus that conducts the distillation process by boiling, condensing and decantation to separate the EOs. The cold pressing consist of crushing and pressing the peels thus leading to the formation of a watery emulsion. Then, the emulsion is centrifuged to separate out the EOs. Since no external substance are needed, this process ensures that the resulting EOs retains all their properties. The aim of this work was to evaluate the in vivo potential effects of Citrus EOs extracted by hydro distillation and cold pressing on weed emergence and on soil biochemical properties. The topsoil (5 cm) of an Inceptisol within the campus of University of Palermo was used for the experiment. 500 g of soil, air-dried and sieved at 1 cm, were used to fill each of the 24 aluminium pots (10 x 20 cm). then, soils were brought up to 100% of their water holding capacity (WHC) by adding firstly 150 mL of tap water (2/3 of WHC) followed by 70 mL of tap water (1/3 of WHC), by a anual sprayer, containing 8 mL L-1 of each one of the extracted EOs. Then, the soils were maintained at 50% of their water holding capacity during all the period of the experiment. Fitoil was used as emulsifier at a concentration of 1 ml L-1. Soils without EO, and with or without Fitoil, were considered as control. After one month the soils were moistened, plant biomass and height, and soil chemical and biochemical properties were evaluated. The experiment was carried out in quadruplicate to investigate the soil proprieties. In this work, the results are showed and discussed

ATR-FTIR chemical screening for adulterants and sugar characterisation in honeys

The search for improvements in honey analysis is an important topic due to the relevance that adulterations and variations of sugar composition have in this food. Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) is a reliable and fast analytical instrumentation for analysis of liquids, semi-solids and solids, which is currently used in food chemistry for qualitative and quantitative investigations. This work is aimed to build a fast analytical method, using ATR-FTIR and Partial Least Square (PLS) chemometric tool, to quantitative determination of glucose, fructose and sucrose present in honeys. We analyzed 25 honeys from Trentino and Sicily and a significant spectral range from the whole ATR-FTIR spectra were selected. Then a PLS multivariate calibration model was built by using mixtures of glucose, fructose and sucrose at various concentration. Samples for cross-validation were selected, thereby allowing quantitative evaluation of glucose, fructose and sucrose in all samples. Furthermore, a representative number of honeys were mixed with common adulterant syrups to simulate adulteration procedures and to verify the reliability of the ATR-FTIR technique in recognizing them. Preliminary results revealed not only the quantitative reliability of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy in the evaluation of sugars in honeys, but also its ability in recognizing honey adulteration

Situated Learning with Bebras Tasklets

A Bebras short task, a tasklet, is designed to provide a source for exploring a computational thinking concept: at the end of the contest it could be used as a starting point to delve deeper into a computing topic. In this paper we report an experience which aims at taking full advantage of the potential of Bebras tasklets. A math teacher asked her pupils to act as Bebras \u201ctrainers\u201d for younger mates. The pupils, in pairs, were assigned to design and prepare a tangible game inspired by a Bebras tasklet, devised for the younger pupils to practice. They also had to explain the game to the younger pupils, make them play and support them in solving it. In carrying out this assignment the pupils acting as trainers had to deeply explore the Bebras tasklet and face its computational thinking challenge, and also practiced soft skills as collaborating with peers towards a common goal, adapting language and communicative style to engage with younger mates, devising and designing a tangible object, and planning its creation. The experience proved that using Bebras tasklets as the social and cultural context for situated learning of computational thinking competencies is indeed quite productive